Great, locally owned bistros are treasures, and Heather Landwer found us one in the Twilight Grille, just off Glenstone at Cherokee Street.

Heather's take

She had stopped at the south-side restaurant a couple of times for lunch after being introduced to it by a client. It was a delicious surprise. She decided to amplify her word of mouth and gave us a call. We were not disappointed.

The atmosphere is basic, sophisticated seating for 100 with a bar area and a semi-private area nearer the kitchen. You could tuck a good-sized dinner party back there or just drop in to a booth for an enjoyable evening, but for Landwer, it has become a lunch haunt. The dishes aren't fast-food cheap, and the ingredients and quality reflect this step up from the mundane.

Soup was the primary draw for Heather, though she also had much to say about the Goat Cheese Appetizer ($9). This appetizer provided a robust and well-proportioned medley of toasted, roasted garlic, goat cheese and olive tapenade. The delivery is waves of creamy, sweet, crunchy and salty and easily worthy of a meal in itself.

Each bite was a scrumptious construction under Heather's guidance. Her proportions would have turned out perfectly if not for my filching of roasted garlic. She was generous, and I was happy.

"The soups are irresistible," Heather said. Our first two choices weren't available, but our server, Jason, guided us to a creamy turkey noodle ($4 soup du jour). It was a new treat for Heather.

Resting in a rich creamy bath, the soup's other ingredients were not reduced to flavorless mush by overcooking.

"The noodles and vegetables are perfect," Heather said.

We had a recommendation for the crab cakes ($9) and tried those as well. While good, they were a little too far to the creamy and crabby side for Heather, but...

Sandy's Take

...there was no way I'd be arguing with these creamy crabby crab cakes. Sure, they weren't firm, but not all crab cakes are. With their added bit of fire, they are reminiscent of Monterey, Calif., crab season and the creamier and spicier cakes you will find there.

The crab cakes are also a clue to the variety you will find at the Twilight Grille. The menu has a diversity of pasta, seafood and steak dishes. I can see why this place is garnering a reputation as a lunch destination and location for a secret dinner rendezvous.

The Yellow Fin Tuna Sandwich ($11) was excellent, if deceptively named. This open-faced sandwich is fork fare and a delight of construction. The tender fish, tomato, baby greens and foccacia each lend their strengths to the dish without grinding each other into mush.

A tougher slice of bread or thicker tomato would render this dish a disaster. As it is, they find balance, glued together by a wasabi mayonnaise that lends flavor and kick.

The dish, the restaurant

Keith and Neletha Fuemmeler own the Twilight Grill, but Keith creates the fine feast they serve. He has been working at this location since the Bombay Bicycle Club days, long before he thought of owning it. He will be 49 in October, and every dish reflects this skill and maturity. The result is getting things right. That's not to say some of the dishes haven't taken novel turns.

For example, the journey from straight sandwich to open face was a cosmetic one for the yellow fin tuna.

"When we started, we used to serve it as a sandwich," Fuemmeler said "One day, we decided to make it look better for TV."

One small change and a star was born, though not the best-seller. The prime rib and salmon are the most popular, though not signature dishes, Fuemmeler says. It's a diverse enough menu that business doesn't hang on a single recipe.

The soup is straightforward in its simplicity: turkey, vegetables, egg noodles and, as Fuemmeler noted, the fresh ingredients and skillful preparation carry it forward. The crab cakes exhibit the straightforward pedigree found in the soups.

"The cakes are moist and pretty much equal parts crab meat and bread," Fuemmeler said. "The heat comes from Old Bay and a touch of Tabasco."

Complexity actually arrives on the side of Heather's goat cheese appetizer. The olive tapenade is a blend of ingredients that marry sweet and savory to the olive's natural salt for a rich blend of flavors, including kalamata olives, green sweet relish, basil, garlic, infused olive oil and capers. Of course, the capers are a necessity. Tapenade draws its name from the provençale word for capers, tapéno.

For Fuemmeler, such dishes are the result of a lifelong trade, made sweeter by that climb to the top.

"I started washing dishes when I was 15 and have been in the business ever since," he said. "Now I don't have any boss telling me what to do."

For our sake, let's hope he keeps telling himself to do what he has been doing.